Features

There’s a word for it

They say that Diana Vreeland invented every word about fashion, but what she
actually invented was the fashion for words about fashion. Every season
there is a new must-have word — five years ago it was “fiiiiearrce”, and
then it was “fahhhrbulous”, and then it was “diviiine” — all retro-ironic
ululations in which there are no consonants, only vowels, because vowels are
thin and therefore fashionable. Vowels do not say “muffins” or “burps”. They
say monochrome, pizzazz and lunch jewels, and they echo around fashion week
like mating calls in a David Atten­borough documentary, but with more
competitive bag-offs, and tassels.

Anyway, I am told by the fashion elves that “chic” is the word this season.
Everyone will be shouting “chic”. Prada is chic. Céline is modernist chic.
Marc Jacobs is odd chic, Dior is diamond chic, Chanel is chic chic. Tom
Ford, according to one editor, is “slutty open brackets fabulous